Rocket's Height Problems (with an alternate ending)
by theaspiringwriter23
Summary: I wasn't terribly fond of the way I ended the fanfic so I re-wrote the ending to have it that Rocket instills his confidence by saving the team from a giant monster as opposed to him just fixing the wiring of the place


It was the first day after Rocket and his friends had saved the galaxy. Rocket woke up. He looked down his bed and saw how far he'd have to climb down. For anyone who was normal sized, it wouldn't be a big deal, but for a little, 3 foot tall raccoon like him, he had a way to go down. Carefully, he climbed down. Suddenly, he slipped and almost fell off the bed. However, his claws quickly grabbed the sheets. Then he climbed down the bed.

He walked to the door. He took out the step ladder he used to reach the button that opened it. He stood on the step ladder and pressed the button. He grabbed the ladder and walked out of the room. The door closed behind him. Suddenly, Peter walked up to him.

"Hey ewok, what's going on?!", Peter teased.

"Ergh Star Dork, will you start talking about things people have actually heard about?!", Rocket protested.

"Whatever Orco!", Peter answered back.

All Rocket could do was roll his eyes and walk to the bathroom. He knocked on the door to make sure no one was in there. Seeing as he didn't get an answer, he used the step ladder to reach the button to open the door. He walked in the bathroom with his ladder. He took his pants off and sat on the toilet. However, he ended up falling in.

"Dammit, this always happens!", Rocket shouted.

He took a hold of the toilet seat and picked himself up out of the toilet. Then he went to the ledge of the toilet and sat there to take his business.

"Stupid ass, being too small to fit in a regular toilet seat", Rocket muttered.

After doing his business, he decided he needed a shower to wash off the smell. He took the rest of his clothes off and went into the bathtub. He was about to turn on the shower knob when he saw that the soap and shampoo was near the shower head.

"Goddammit!", Rocket exclaimed.

Knowing he couldn't reach the shampoo and soap, he crawled on top of the toilet seat and got the soap off the bathroom sink. He carefully climbed down the sink while holding the soap and put it on the ledge of the bath/shower. He then jumped off the toilet seat and got a new case of shampoo out of the cabinet under the bathroom sink. However, the ledge was a little too thin and the shampoo and soap fell into the shower.

Rocket sighed.

"This is going to be a long day", Rocket said, annoyed.

He then jumped into the bathtub and took his shower. After he was done taking a shower, he put the soap back on the sink and the shower back in the cabinet. Next he had to dry himself off with a towel but the towel rack was, again, a little out of reach. He tried using the step ladder but he still wasn't able to reach the towels. Unfortunately, it was across from the sink and bathtub so he couldn't just climb on top of it to get the towel. Suddenly, there was a knock at the door.

"Is anyone in there?!", Quill asked.

"Just me, Star Dork!", Rocket said.

"Well, can you get out?! I really need to go!", Quill said, worried.

"I would but I'm trying to get a towel off your rack! It's too high, Quill!", Rocket said angrily.

Quill paused. This confused Rocket.

"Quill?"

Peter laughed. Rocket quickly got angry.

"D'aww, the wittle waccoon can't get the towel?!", Peter said mockingly.

"Shut up, Quill! Is there anything in here I can use to get it?!", Rocket shouted.

"Okay, okay. There's a plunger behind the toilet. You can use the end of the plunger to try to grab the towel", Peter said.

"Thanks, Star Jerk", Rocket said.

He grabbed the plunger and used the end to knock the towel down. He then used the towel to dry himself off. However, he noticed the towel was bigger than him. "Dammit", he thought, "I can't wrap myself around this!" He took one look at his dirty jumpsuit and realized he had to put it on. He threw the towel on the ground and went to get the jumpsuit.

He walked out of the bathroom with the jumpsuit on. Peter was waiting outside for the bathroom.

"Wow, dude, you really smell!", Peter said.

"Shut up!", Rocket snapped.

Rocket went back into his room and took the jumpsuit off. He then changed into another jumpsuit and walked over to Groot, who was still growing.

"Hey Groot, how are you doing?", Rocket said.

"I am groot"

"Need a little water?", Rocket asked.

"I am groot"

Rocket sprinkled a little water into Groot's soil. Then he took the jumpsuit and went to take it to the laundry.

He went to the laundry room with the jumpsuit and his step ladder. He put his step ladder under the washing machine. He stepped onto the ladder and put his dirty jumpsuit into the machine. Then he climbed on top of the machine and put the laundry detergent into it. He pressed the perm press button and jumped off of the machine.

The other Guardians were hanging out in the kitchen, eating breakfast. Rocket came in.

"Hey Munchkin, had trouble following the yellow brick road?", Peter teased.

"Hey Quill, will you ever start making sense?", Rocket snapped back.

Rocket climbed onto the counter. He then looked at the higher shelves. He started jumping to reach the shelves but, every time, he couldn't jump quite high enough to latch onto them. The Guardians exchanged worried looks, knowing their friend needed a little help.

Drax sighed and walked over to him. Suddenly, he picked Rocket up.

"Put me down, Drax!"

Drax put him on his shoulders.

"There you go", Drax said.

"What do you think you're doing?!", Rocket exclaimed, angry.

"You had a little trouble reaching the top shelf. Well, now you can!", Drax said.

"I don't need your help!", Rocket protested.

"Are you sure? It seemed like you were struggling to get there", Gamora said, worried.

"I can handle it just fine!", Rocket snapped.

"Well, you're on Drax's shoulders now, so you might as well just take the help", Peter said.

Rocket sighed, annoyed.

"Fine, but don't do it again, Drax!", Rocket said, annoyed.

"Okay, next time I'll just get your cereal for you", Drax said.

"I can get it myself!", Rocket exclaimed, angry.

"No you can't, little friend. You're too small, you can't reach it", Drax said ignorantly.

"Yes I can, I can do anything you guys can!", Rocket protested.

"No you can't, it's hard for you to reach most things, you can't throw a punch, every time you try to attack people physically, you get thrown away like a rag doll, and you need a booster seat for both the table and your captain's chair", Drax said, "you're a good warrior but you need more help than you're willing to admit".

Rocket fumed.

"I'm not helpless!", Rocket shouted, "I can handle myself just fine!"

Rocket crawled down Drax and stormed out of the kitchen.

"What about your breakfast?", Drax asked.

"I'm not hungry!", Rocket said.

He walked out. Gamora and Peter looked at Drax angrily.

"What?", Drax asked.

"Drax, you didn't have to be so blunt!", Gamora said, annoyed.

"What was I supposed to say?", Drax questioned.

"I don't know but you could've been nicer about it", Peter said, "maybe you could've just asked him if he needed help instead of grabbing him and putting him on your shoulder?"

"But, when Groot was tall, he always climbed on his shoulder", Drax pointed out, "and he didn't ask Groot if he could climb there"

"But he's only known you for a couple of days while he's known Groot for a long time!", Gamora answered, "he probably trusts Groot more because he knows him better and knows that he would never look down on him. If you're saying stuff like "no, you can't, you need to be helped all the time" and he doesn't know you that well, I can understand why that might make him furious and not want to trust you. Listen Drax, I think it would be best if you apologized to him, show him that you are his friend and you don't look down on him!"

"Although, probably best to wait a couple of hours, knowing Rocket, he'll probably try to kill you", Quill said.

"What do you want to do then?", Gamora asked.

"Probably best not to deal with it right now. We might just make things worse", Quill said, "let's just relax and watch some TV"

Quill, Gamora, and Drax were channel surfing, trying to watch something on TV, but there was never anything on in the morning. Suddenly a new story ignored one of the channels they were about to go over.

"Good morning, everyone in the galaxy, my name is Tom Zavahan, here with some urgent news! A giant monster has attacked Pillatona! Hundreds have already died and thousands are running for their life", Tom said.

Suddenly, The Milano's screen turned on and The Mayor of Pillatona was on the screen.

"Is this The Guardians of the Galaxy?", The Mayor asked.

The Guardians quickly ran to the screen.

"Yes?", asked Peter.

"We need your help! A giant monster is attacking our planet and we need your help to save the day!", The Mayor pleaded.

"We'll be right there", said Peter.

Rocket was in his room, grumbling to himself. He was building a jet pack to be able to reach higher places. Groot was also hanging out near him.

"Stupid Drax, thinking he's better than me because he's tall! I'll show him! I'll use this jet pack to reach things even he can't reach and then HE'LL be the one asking me to reach stuff!", Rocket said.

Suddenly, he felt the ship landing on a planet. This surprised him.

"What's going on?", Rocket said.

There was a knock at the door.

"Who is it?!", Rocket shouted.

"Dude, we gotta save this planet from a giant monster!", Quill said.

"Oh, you want my help?! Mr. can't get the cereal box on the top shelf for himself?!", Rocket said, sarcastically, "Now you suddenly think I can help you?!"

"Come on, man, are you really going to hold a grudge against us because of a stupid shelf?!", Quill said, annoyed.

But it wasn't really the shelf. Rocket was just sensitive to, basically, anything that made him different from others. After all, he was once a normal animal who'd been experimented on over and over again. His species wasn't normally one that acted like a person and, as a result, many people treated him differently, leaving him to feel like he was a freak.

However, while he was mostly angry at others who treated him differently for being an "animal", his height didn't help matters as he was sometimes made fun of for his height and to see his so called friends think he couldn't do something just because he was small really didn't help his self esteem, especially when his so called friends were, like most creatures, much larger than him.

But he couldn't let his friends know that, if they knew he was insecure, what would they think of him?! So he just responded with...

"I'll hold a grudge as long as I want!"

The Guardians were worried for their small friend.

"Drax, maybe you could talk to him", Quill said.

Drax knocked on the door.

"Hey Fuzzy Beast, I'm sorry if I made you feel bad but please help us. We need to have the whole team to help us stop the monster!", Drax said.

"Yeah? Well I'm busy so you'll just have to stop the monster yourselves!", Rocket answered.

"I don't think we'll be able to get through to him. We'll just have to do it ourselves", Gamora said.

The Guardians went outside and started firing at the monster. They tried using all their weapons. They tried slicing the monster open and shooting at it but, while it slowed down the monster a bit, it kept going. Even using their jet packs to reach the monster at a certain angle didn't work.

Rocket finished his jet pack and got up. He then saw his teammates struggling to fight the monster and, suddenly, felt guilty for letting them go off on their own. While they were holding their own okay, they weren't really getting anywhere. He knew what he had to do and built a bomb.

Then Rocket strapped his jet pack on and flew out of the ship. He flew up towards the monster.

"Hey, ya big bully!", Rocket said, "ya hungry?!"

Rocket threw the bomb into the Monster's mouth. The Monster swallowed the bomb. This caused the monster to blow up and the monster's body parts went all over the town. Then Rocket flew back down to the ground. The Guardians and the rest of the citizens all circled around him. Rocket wasn't exactly a fan of people circling around him, especially considering everyone, even most gargoyles, towered over him. It probably didn't help that the scientists had all circled around him or people circled around him to make fun of him for being an animal or for his height.

However, this time was different. People cheered for him. They chanted "Rocket! Rocket!" For once, they didn't care that he was short or some kind of animal. All they cared about was that he had saved their town, even if the results were kind've messy. Then they lifted him off the floor and continued celebrating and chanting his name. The Guardians joined them, happy to see their friend get some recognition.

"Hey Rocket, I've got an idea", Peter said.

"What?", Rocket asked.

"After this, how about we go back to The Milano and you can get us some champagne?", asked Peter, "It's in the bottom cupboard and you'd be small enough to fit inside and get it".

"I'd like that", Rocket said.

After the townspeople celebrated The Guardians victory, The Guardians returned to their ship and Rocket got the champange. They sat down to watch some TV. Suddenly, a commercial with legs came on.

"Hey look, it's Rocket vision!", Peter joked.

Drax and Gamora laughed.

"Very funny, Quill", Rocket said, sarcastically.

Peter roughed up the top of his head.

"I'm just kidding, big guy", Peter said.

"Yeah, yeah", Rocket said.

"In all serious though, you see, Rocket? You used your tech skills to help defeat the monster by killing him with a bomb. You may need help sometimes but so do we and, more often than not, you can be the one to help us out", Drax said, "you're a good warrior, Rocket. Yes, you may not be the conventional warrior, but you use your intelligence, cleverness, and knowledge of technology in battle and those skills work. Plus, you can also use those skills to help us when we need those skills!", Drax said.

"We're a family, Rocket", Gamora said, "we all look out for each other and help each other out. We help you out and you help us out".

"Okay guys, don't get so mushy, I don't want to throw up now", Rocket said.

"You have to admit, Rocky Rock, they do have some good advice", Quill said.

"I never said they didn't", Rocket said, happy.

The Guardians sat watching TV, happy that their newfound family was coming together quite nicely. They were especially happy to realize that, even though he'd never admit it, Rocket appreciated his new family.

THE END


End file.
